By Stephie Madurai and Anandita Rao
Towards the end of November, we had participants from different parts of the country, visit Bookworm for a week long Library workshop. The Wipro Library workshop brings together participants from different organisations, associated with the Wipro Foundation and interested in library and the possibilities it holds. As part of this workshop, a visit to one of Bookworm’s community library sites, was planned. Our community library at Cacra was chosen for this visit. Cacra is a small fishing community close to the sea. The participants could experience the joy of a library session, along with the children, in a beautiful setting. We planned to end this visit with a small tea party!
In our preparation, we shared an invite with all the children and also with the parents from the community, so that all of them could join us in the session and the tea party that followed. In sessions leading up to this visit, the children shared with us what they would like to do during this visit. Their enthusiasm was both interesting and lovely to experience, as the children in this community are usually shy but for this visit they were all looking forward to it.
Before we left for the visit, we showed the participants a small presentation about the community to give them a bit of background. The participants were curious and were ready to meet the children. We were a few minutes late, but when we reached, the children ran towards us asking where the visitors were. We told them that they are coming in the bus and the children waited for them at the library door. Since our library room is small, the participants took turns to enter the library room and see the warm space and asked children about what books they like and what brings them to the library. Kareena was among the senior children and immediately answered most of the questions. The other children slowly opened up and started responding.
Our session took place on the Cacra beach, which is just 2 minutes away from the library room. We formed a large circle, children, parents, visitors and us, and started off with some drama games so we could all introduce ourselves to each other and be comfortable with one other in a dramatic way. Following this, the children browsed through the books to choose a book to read with the visitors. Everyone had a lovely time reading together. Reading whispers filled the air which made the villagers working on their fishing nets look at their children with appreciation. Before winding up there were many volunteers who wished to do a Book Talk, and 2 children presented a Book Talk on the book they had chosen and answered questions asked by everyone.
Some of the children’s parents had joined the session and were waiting to interact with the participants. Following the book browsing we had a short time where the participants asked different questions, which the parent responded to openly. Once everyone had spoken and the clouds started getting darker we closed the session with the much awaited tea party!
During the session that followed, the children briefly shared their best moments of reading with the participants and singing songs. Kareena shared that she felt good telling about the books that are her favorite.
When we spoke to the parents to understand what they felt, Ninika, Tanvesh’s mother said that she liked talking with the visitors and said that she sometimes tells other villagers the same to encourage them to send their children to the library. While Sanjay, Rohit’s father said that he liked the questions that the visitors asked. He said no one had asked him such in-depth questions about the library before and all the answers came from his heart and he felt good.
The Wipro participants who had experienced this session were also thankful and joyful with this experience. It was good to listen to their perspectives and thoughts.
Sajitha shared ‘Goa is renowned for its beaches and alcohol. But the visit to Cacra village organized by Bookworm Goa gave me a different story of Goa – beach, song, books and children as the best book buddies. Near the beach, we all sang a song about fruits where they ask each one which fruit they want to eat. When I was asked the question, I said ‘apple’. But one girl from the circle didn’t accept it immediately and said apple comes from Kashmir. How will you get it here? This surprised me and I realised how much they relate with the books they read. This piece of information which she read gave her the courage to stop the song in between and question an adult. It is so difficult to measure these impacts of how library influences one.’
Riti shared ‘Holding on to much anticipation, when our bus entered the Cacra village, Sujata’s voice rang in my head. I could actually visualise a red van delivering books to the village of the Cacra Community. Of course, the red van did not exist. But a community library was there, where I saw children engaged with books. The setting sun, the group of children and the Bookworm team involved us seamlessly into the library session. What struck me was the open space on the beach that was transformed into a shared, reading space. This is when I could connect with a book that I read during the workshop, ‘Waiting for Biblioburro’ by Monica Brown. I could easily connect Sujata with the passion, patience and perseverance of Biblioburro. The visit was quite overwhelming and inspiring.
Sreenivasa shared ‘When I visited Cacra library initially I was amazed to see scenic beauty while going down to that place and even on the bank’s of the beach where sun is all set to go. Even more beautiful is the work BOOKWORM is doing with these communities to create a love towards books. It generally requires guts to start any activity and also consistent efforts for longer duration’s to achieve or sense that we will achieve visible changes. Even though activities is different, I can sense the hard work and love, which reminded me of our work with children in Hyderabad. Capacity of the child is same regardless of their social structure but still environment shapes him/her. Very inspired by the Bookworm activities at this place which provide these children a wonderful environment to grow, explore and investigate on their own. Thanks for making us part of such inspiring visits. The smiles and energy in the children once they see the Bookworm team is really amazing. The activities in the little place is also motivating.’
We were glad to have this experience of sharing this joy of library engagement with all the participants and it was also lovely to see how much the children opened up, took charge and shared during this short visit.